After 30 flights my Champ still looks new, mostly because I follow RTFThumpers formula for success. There are a couple of things I can add to this.

1. Get a cheap Walmart timer and time your flights. If your battery lasts for 10 minutes then start thinking about landing at 7 minutes. Never fly your batteries to LVC.

2. If it looks bad on approach then it is bad, go around until you can set the Champ down gently.

3. If your doing grass landings thats good at the beginning but your not really learning to land the way you will need to land a bigger plane. Once you can repeatedly set her down nicely on the grass start thinking about landing on a hard surface.

4. I find that my champ lands best with the throttle just a little above idle. Once the plane is within 1 inch off the ground I cut throttle and feed in some up elevator, it gets a standing ovation from the spectators every time.

5. Get a set of larger wheels for the Champ. I am still on my original prop because of the clearance bigger wheels provide.

Porpoising does not need to be fixed by adding weight to the front. You are probably just way out of trim.

First, put your battery around 1cm away from the front of the battery Velcro - this is around a nose heavy/neutral position for the champ and is a good start.

Fly your champ around 30% power so it's on a nice smooth glide. Your champ should fly level and not porpoise. What I mean by that is your champ should glide smoothly with no pitch changes in the nose. If your champ's nose goes up, stalls out, then dives, then back up, then stalls out and dives this means your champ is not trimmed out correctly. At no point should your champ EVER do this when you are not touching the elevator and there is minimal wind.

Trim out your champ by adding down elevator (pressing up on the digital trim or pressing the upper digital trim button on the stock controller) until this action stops. That will hold your nose down and level in level flight.

Never add extra weight to your champ. I have over 300 flights on this bird and there has NEVER been an instance where weight has had to be added, even after crashing the thing in to millions of pieces and gluing it.

In the end, porpoising is due to unbalanced CG (center of gravity) and an improperly trimmed elevator. Porpoising will be most noticeable at low speeds. Is it a fatal event for the champ because newbies will not know how to get out of it and it will end up nosing in and doing some damage.

No amount of trim will make an unbalanced airframe happy. It is absolutely vital to accurately balance the plane on it's Cog before flight and trimming.
On an airframe this small, that means getting the plane balanced at the recommended CoG location, not holding it on your fingertips and saying "That's close enough"...It's not.

A simple balance stand on a level surface. Mark the CoG point on the underside of the wings. Two pencils or dowels in a wood or foam base, and simply shift the battery until the horizontal tail surface is truly level, again, not "close enough", but level. Mine balances with the 160 batts as far forward as the slot allows. Being off as little as 10mm or 1/4 inch will result in a porpoising pig that no trim will correct. Get it spot on, and the Champ will fly itself for hours, with no more than a nudge now and then on the sticks.

This airframe wants to fly. If it's not behaving, it's invariably because of operator error.

Why do real pilots concern themselves with CoG and who sits where? Because they cant trim their way out of an unbalanced airframe, period.

I like to think of trimming as tuning a guitar. But the Champ is an extremely forgiving plane, and unless it is way out of trim, you should initially be fine.

If you find yourself constantly giving stick input in one direction to keep the Champ flying straight or level, you just apply trim in that direction. The Champ will then by "default" move in that direction, and allow your thumbs to relax.

I do not agree with having to get the CG perfect on the champ. The champ is an extremely forgiving plane and I can put the battery 1/2" up or down from the original spot I always put it and a bit of trim makes it fly perfect. After all, it's a high wing trainer not an aerobatic plane. I have never balanced the CG on the champ like I do with the Beast or T-28 or anything more capable.

The only time that odd flight was never fixed with trim settings is when:

The motor mount was lose

The tail section was lose/damaged.

They made this plane to be almost fool proof. Sure a balanced CG will make it fly better, I agree, but there's no need to get out a balancing jig for the champ of all planes.

Ya, I know what you mean. It's the best example I can think of to indicate that fine adjustments are needed to make a machine perform best.

And you are absolutely right, that is what we learn in ground school too. Trimming is fun though, it keeps flight interesting. Balancing an airframe is done on the ground only, and must be done correctly.

BTW, too much wind is right! We were at 45kph here yesterday! Some time on the sim alleviates the itch to fly, but at least I am forced to do my homework and not go outside lol

Astro,
That same breeze is reaching down here. Fortunately for me, it results in what we call Fall...3-4 months of 50s at night and 70s-80s in the afternoon.

BC,
You're a much more experienced rc pilot than I. I'd never dare try to fly a Beast, and ailerons still give me twitchy thumbs. A lot of folks get Champs as first planes though, and for them, trying to trim out a porpoise caused by being slightly tail heavy usually ends badly. For them, getting the cg spot on is very important because it eliminates variables they're not equipped to deal with yet.

It's all about that "magic moment" when they realize the plane can fly itself, and they relax and enjoy for the first time.

Went back out today to my backup field to maiden Champ 2.5. Despite the wind up she went for a nice maiden. Lots of soaring, she flies really nice as a Champ will. I just love this nice handling little plane .

Here is the champ with a E-Flite Park 180, I added a bit of weight for the larger battery and whatever else I though might increase the weight. The amps are the stated continuous max amps. probably what the motor will draw close to wide open throttle.

I should clarify the porpoising I've been seeing is pretty minor, I think it's more a matter of my clumsiness on throttle than anything else.

Threw my 160 mAh Turnigy in the battery slot as far forward as it could go and plopped it up on my recently built ghetto CG table. (Translation: Egg carton turned upside down, filled with rocks, with two identical pencils jammed through two egg holders).

Best I can tell, my CG with that battery location is 1.25 inches from the leading edge of the wing. My precision isn't great, I leveled the elevator with a 9" torpedo level and measured the CG with a small tape measure. It was balancing on erasers since the pencil points were marking the wings.

I should clarify the porpoising I've been seeing is pretty minor, I think it's more a matter of my clumsiness on throttle than anything else.

Threw my 160 mAh Turnigy in the battery slot as far forward as it could go and plopped it up on my recently built ghetto CG table. (Translation: Egg carton turned upside down, filled with rocks, with two identical pencils jammed through two egg holders).

Best I can tell, my CG with that battery location is 1.25 inches from the leading edge of the wing. My precision isn't great, I leveled the elevator with a 9" torpedo level and measured the CG with a small tape measure. It was balancing on erasers since the pencil points were marking the wings.

So how's my CG look?

Hobbyzone says 28mm from the LE which is closer to 1.1". I'm sure you are close enough, except when you are learning it is better to have the CG a little forward rather than a little far back. Try taping a dime under the nose and see where it balances. If good, you can leave it there until you get more comfortable with flying. Aft CG definitively contributes to "porpoising".

Champ III can't quite climb vertically, it turns out. That 60-degree climb was about the best it can sustain over a long period, though of course it can zoom climb vertically for maybe 5-10 seconds before running out of airspeed.

It can do a snap roll of sorts, though. Slight dive to pick up speed, pull up to about 30 degrees climb, and slap the rudder over. Almost a Lomcevak... at least it sure LOOKS out of control!

Flying with the rudder on the left stick is more of a pain that I'd thought. I see ailerons in our future.

Still studying the use of ailerons, decided that full-length ailerons will ultimately be the best way to go, with a (2 gram) 282a single-screw servo on each aileron, probably mounted to the underside of the wing. Might be INSIDE the fuselage, or maybe outside, near the fuselage. Reason for full-length, is for both (a) effectiveness, you need snappier roll ability (even if you rarely use it) on a model than on a real 7AC; and also so I can eventually mix them to flaps.

But until them (meaning until the 2g servos arrive from HobbyKing), I opened the DX5e and swapped the center wires of the two lateral pots (rudder and aileron). First measured voltages: black is ground, red is 3.28 volts (maybe controlled by trim?), center was 1.75 volts on both. So I felt OK about swapping the wires, the radio should never know the difference. It worked - now I have rudder and elevator on the right stick, throttle on the left. Even the directions were correct. Odd thing is that rudder TRIM is still on the left stick, and aileron TRIM still on the right. Well, this is temporary until I get those ailerons going.

Took it out into medium-gusty winds in my cul-de-sac, launched, and it flew nicely for about ten seconds until a tree jumped in front of it. Pushed the motor mount back a little, but broke nothing else. This gave me an excuse to open it up, snap a few pictures, re-glue the mount, and seal it up. Glue is drying now. CA shouldn't take long.

AR6400LBL installation is as simple as it gets, motor mount is nearly so. Note the right thrust, there is also some down thrust, both might be more trouble than they're worth. 4.5 x 3 GWS propeller with prop saver on HobbyKing 5-gram brushless motor, has nice power. Climbs forever at 45 to 60 degrees, and can zoom climb vertically for 100 feet or so but runs out of speed after that (vertically). I've got several supposedly-more-powerful motors coming from HobbyKing (grin).

Also ordered a bunch of 130mAh and 160 mAh 30C 1S LiPos from HobbyKing, and the correct connectors. Champ IIIa will have two such fastened to the bottom, lighter weight and they should fit better than the 180mAh 2s (with discharge plug and balance plug).

Went back out today to my backup field to maiden Champ 2.5. Despite the wind up she went for a nice maiden. Lots of soaring, she flies really nice as a Champ will. I just love this nice handling little plane .

Blu

Had nice sessions with my Champ tonight too!

Such a good flier, even after adding CA and tape, and carbon rods in strategic places due to so much crashing by me.

I think I have nosed in so often that even the poor replacement Mustang motor is chewed up now, like I did the first one. I am improving though, so I think one more $12 motor and gearbox assy will likely see me through to more reasonable landings!

I think I put four or five batteries through it tonight, including the 350 mah, until it just got so dark that on last battery I almost lost it... might have caught some video... if so, I'll post it later.

What a day for flying. Went this morning bosonn. Did some ROGS and after 2 batteries RTF Thumper showed up with his buddy Gary. Thumper let me fly his T-28. I dont know what he was thinking and after It went in the tree he was really thinking. After climing up ot get it down he let me fly the rest of the battery. Thanks again for the fun. You are a great trainer. When you go fly the wing give me a buzz.

AR6400LBL installation is as simple as it gets, motor mount is nearly so. Note the right thrust, there is also some down thrust, both might be more trouble than they're worth. 4.5 x 3 GWS propeller with prop saver on HobbyKing 5-gram brushless motor, has nice power. Climbs forever at 45 to 60 degrees, and can zoom climb vertically for 100 feet or so but runs out of speed after that (vertically). I've got several supposedly-more-powerful motors coming from HobbyKing (grin).

Are you running 1-S or 2? I have read the 6400LBL is only good for 3 amps. Just soldered up a 3000 kv 5.5 gram AP05 to a 2 gram XP-7A esc, mounted the 5x2.7 Beast prop, on a 2-S test pack she sings a nice song! don't know if I'm gonna put it in a Champ or PoleCat!.....We'll See!

What a day for flying. Went this morning bosonn. Did some ROGS and after 2 batteries RTF Thumper showed up with his buddy Gary. Thumper let me fly his T-28. I dont know what he was thinking and after It went in the tree he was really thinking. After climing up ot get it down he let me fly the rest of the battery. Thanks again for the fun. You are a great trainer. When you go fly the wing give me a buzz.

Are you kidding you did great, the T-28 is the next level flying and you are all over it. Dave you are a natural at the bank and yank. great job. The vid proof is coming got garys maiden up now working on yours next. Grat day today.

AR6400LBL installation is as simple as it gets, motor mount is nearly so. Note the right thrust, there is also some down thrust, both might be more trouble than they're worth. 4.5 x 3 GWS propeller with prop saver on HobbyKing 5-gram brushless motor, has nice power. Climbs forever at 45 to 60 degrees, and can zoom climb vertically for 100 feet or so but runs out of speed after that (vertically). I've got several supposedly-more-powerful motors coming from HobbyKing (grin).

Are you running 1-S or 2? I have read the 6400LBL is only good for 3 amps. Just soldered up a 3000 kv 5.5 gram AP05 to a 2 gram XP-7A esc, mounted the 5x2.7 Beast prop, on a 2-S test pack she sings a nice song! don't know if I'm gonna put it in a Champ or PoleCat!.....We'll See!

I'm running a 180mAh 2s LiPo. 2s was the reason for going with the AR6400LBL, haven't seen any smoke yet. All the motors I have coming from HobbyKing are less than 3A, or so the descriptions say. I'm also in the market for a good bridge, if you know of one.

I often wonder if the 30C on some of these single-cell tiny LiPos is realistic. Guess I'll find out soon.

BTW, I also tried binding this AR6400LBL to an original Champ transmitter, to see if the rudder would migrate back to the right stick as it is on the factory brushed Champ. Binding was easy enough (follow the instructions on the back of the Champ transmitter), but ultimately no joy: The rudder stayed on the left stick of the Champ transmitter with the throttle, while elevator was on the right stick.

Oh well.

Sure would be nice if there was a tiny switch (or even a solderable jumper) on the AR6400LBL to pick either right stick or left stick for the rudder servo.

Swapping the internal wires in the transmitter (as I ultimately did to the Spektrum Dx5e) is crude, but effective. I'll put them back when I put ailerons on it (Champ IIIa), and start flying it like a real plane.

Weather has cooled down a bit here in central FL which is great for flying. Took the kids to the park today and luckily I had my champ in the truck. I was going to throw one of the bigger planes (corsair or T28) in there this morning, but decided just to grab the champ. Glad I did, I forgot how much fun this little plane is. Haven't flown it in a few months, been flying the bigger ones and the UMX planes a lot.

After circling the park a few times and doing some touch and go's off the tennis court near by, I soon had about 20 kids chasing the champ around the park. They all wanted to try and hand launch it, so I let a couple of them. Funny how such a small little simple plane can be so much fun.

The Champ and Football

Flew 4 batteries on the Champ yesterday morning, and 3 and 1/2 batteries between the second game and Sunday Night Football. That's 7 and 1/2 batteries and 3 NFL games in one day, one great day. The only damage was a lost wheel cap on the front landing gear. Will make one up today along with some spares.

I am sure this question has been asked before.

What has been the longest combined flight time for your Champ in one day?

Not only did I get to fly all the batts and watch football but I got to fly with RTFThumper in the morning!

Best I can tell, my CG with that battery location is 1.25 inches from the leading edge of the wing. My precision isn't great, I leveled the elevator with a 9" torpedo level and measured the CG with a small tape measure.

So how's my CG look?

Hello

My first impression is that you're doing too much at one time. I wouldn't even worry about the CG until you know for sure that you should be.

Levelling the elevator has nothing to do with CG and the use of a 9" level indicates you are linking elevator position to the balance position. You do not need a level to adjust the elevator or rudder to its neutral position. What you do need is a ruler or creditcard.

First, make sure all the trim settings on your champ Tx are in the center. The tone for center is longer than the others.

Lay something very light, very flat, and very stiff on the horizontal stabilizer with part of it extending over and past the elevator. The elevator should just touch the the underside of ruler or CC. If it doesn't touch then it needs to go up some until it does. If it touches and lifts the ruler or CC, then lower it down until there is a perfectly straight transition from horizontal stabilizer to the elevator. Even if the ruler is at an angle because your Champ is sitting on its landing gear it does not matter. What matters is that the transition from horizontal stab to elevator has 0 degrees angle.

Center the rudder the same way. Press a ruler or CC against the vertical stabilizer and let it extend past the rudder. The rudder should just touch the ruler or CC. If the ruler doesn't lay flat against both rudder and vertical stab, adjust the rudder position until it does.

Porpoising can be caused by several things. It's not always too much up elevator. When the wind is low or non-existent, too much down elevator causes a plane to pitch down and start gaining airspeed. As you know, the Champ like to lift with speed, so it will start to rise out of this slight dive until it burns off that excess speed. At which point the down elevator will cause it to pitch down again, gain some speed, and start to rise. It will do this even when you don't have any power.

If it only porpoises when giving throttle or flying into the wind then it's likely due to too much up elevator. The Champ likes to lift a lot when it's set up correctly. Too much up elevator will cause it to stall quickly and then go into a dive. As it gains speed again it will start to rise (more quickly than the other example because of the extra up elevator) and then stall again. This one isn't noticeable at slow speeds with no wind.

I predict that if you adjust the elevator and rudder so they are in a neutral position and adjust the trim a little with your TX as needed once in the air, your cg "issue" will go away.

I am probably doing too much at the same time, this is not unusual for me.

I'm relatively certain that the horizontal stabilizer and the elevator are in line, i.e. linear to each other. I will check that more specifically this evening when I get the chance. Same with the vertical stabilizer/rudder, though I also need to check that it is truly vertical, not flopping towards one wing.

I used the level because my understanding is that you identify CG by balancing the plane between two supports and adjust until the horizontal stabilizer is parallel to the ground. I didn't trust eyeballing it so I dug out a level to check it more accurately. Helped a decent amount since the plane will balance without swinging in a range of locations, getting the horizontal stabilizer parallel to ground narrows it down.

Haven't touched the trim buttons on the Tx at all thus far.

Have read much of aeajr's thread (and most of the newbie board and micro RTF boards as well) and am taking the points to heart. I've been very wind conscious, though I do have tendency to stand in middle of field and fly in circles around myself.

Am getting comfortable with controlling the plane in the air before getting aggressive in landing it, though I know I'll need to graduate to rolling hard surface landings before trying to fly something with any mass to speak of.

Also have a local club's info to reach out to, and my buddy has a line on potential private property (farm) to fly on. The local field is good for a slow plane like the Champ but anything bigger or much faster I wouldn't be comfortable with.

edit: larger wheels might be nice too. I notice the wire of the landing gear tends to try to pop out of the slot some, the curve seems like I need to spread it a bit to keep it from flexing closed, but don't want to manhandle it.

I am probably doing too much at the same time, this is not unusual for me.

I'm relatively certain that the horizontal stabilizer and the elevator are in line, i.e. linear to each other. I will check that more specifically this evening when I get the chance. Same with the vertical stabilizer/rudder, though I also need to check that it is truly vertical, not flopping towards one wing.

I used the level because my understanding is that you identify CG by balancing the plane between two supports and adjust until the horizontal stabilizer is parallel to the ground. I didn't trust eyeballing it so I dug out a level to check it more accurately. Helped a decent amount since the plane will balance without swinging in a range of locations, getting the horizontal stabilizer parallel to ground narrows it down.

Haven't touched the trim buttons on the Tx at all thus far.

Have read much of aeajr's thread (and most of the newbie board and micro RTF boards as well) and am taking the points to heart. I've been very wind conscious, though I do have tendency to stand in middle of field and fly in circles around myself.

Am getting comfortable with controlling the plane in the air before getting aggressive in landing it, though I know I'll need to graduate to rolling hard surface landings before trying to fly something with any mass to speak of.

Also have a local club's info to reach out to, and my buddy has a line on potential private property (farm) to fly on. The local field is good for a slow plane like the Champ but anything bigger or much faster I wouldn't be comfortable with.

edit: larger wheels might be nice too. I notice the wire of the landing gear tends to try to pop out of the slot some, the curve seems like I need to spread it a bit to keep it from flexing closed, but don't want to manhandle it.

You are doing GREAT! Keep up the good work and diligence. Larger tires do help.
Rick in Alaska

To all you guy's who want rudder on the right stick........If you aspire to move up to full house, 4 or more channel, it really is best to keep the rudder on the left stick, ailerons on the right, this is the conventional configuration, and after a little stick time, will become second nature. It's common on a larger bird to cordinate and cross control the rudder with the ailerons, esp. in a cross wind. no offence intended, just my 2-C

Check these out.https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1514024
Floats for the champ.
8 grams
not a kit - already built!
different colors
37 bucks--seems reasonable to me. Too bad summer is over here in Alaska.
Maybe I will get a set for use in Florida when we go on vacation in January!!

White, for no particular reason. They have flat bottoms, which surprised me. Most actual aircraft floats, I thought had slight V-bottoms?

But I basically know nothing about aircraft floats, or boats or anything like that. What the hell, if they let me take off from water and land on it, then I'm happy!

I mostly got them so my 13-year old son's eyes will bug out and he'll say, "Wow, that's so cool!"

We'll see.

Now my biggest fear, is that the plane will wind up out on the lake, in a position other than upright due to my expert pilotage, and I'll be standing there on the shore with the transmitter in my hand and a dumb look on my face, saying "Uhhh... what do I do now?"

Guess I'll bring a fishing pole with a casting-practice weight on it, just in case. And/or find a large but shallow pond or wading pool where I can walk out and grab it.

White, for no particular reason. They have flat bottoms, which surprised me. Most actual aircraft floats, I thought had slight V-bottoms?

But I basically know nothing about aircraft floats, or boats or anything like that. What the hell, if they let me take off from water and land on it, then I'm happy!

I mostly got them so my 13-year old son's eyes will bug out and he'll say, "Wow, that's so cool!"

We'll see.

Now my biggest fear, is that the plane will wind up out on the lake, in a position other than upright due to my expert pilotage, and I'll be standing there on the shore with the transmitter in my hand and a dumb look on my face, saying "Uhhh... what do I do now?"

Guess I'll bring a fishing pole with a casting-practice weight on it, just in case. And/or find a large but shallow pond or wading pool where I can walk out and grab it.

Interesting. You are right, "real" floats mostly have V bottoms. But he says these work fine so that is ok. Long as it gets off the water. I have a P-51 motor in mine so plenty of power.

I think you are right. Find a place to fly that you can have a chance of retrieving the bird if things go awry! I have a small boat in a lake about 15 miles away. But here is a really neat glacial pool only two miles away that I want to try.

I've flown my Champ with a set of v-botttom floats. Strong stock motor, 240 batt, and 5043 prop. I found that on really flat water, the surface tension and drag is too much to overcome. A trick to try is taxiing in a circle, and taking off across the ripples.

It's my guess that the covered floats will have less drag, maybe a bit less directional stability than the V bottoms.

A big puddle is a great place to practice on. If you get it right, the puddle is big enough; get it wrong and you know you can recover it.

olthump, if you can, try moving your floats forward a hair. So that the CG is right at or just a hair behind the front sponson lip. If your floats are too far back they won't want to ride up on step and it makes it harder to break them loose.

Also check to see if the Champ is sitting slightly nose up in the water. This lets the wing lift the bird and makes less work on the elevator trying to force the Champ to pivot.

At speed you should be running on just a fraction of the bottom rear of the float front sponson.

A flat bottom tends to ride up over water, a V cuts through it. Better steering with the V but it is a little harder to break loose compared to the flat bottom.

Puddles do work!
Here is a short clip of my Champ this past spring with a stock motor and prop with a set of floats i built.
Haven't tried again with the floats although i did cut out a set of flat bottom ones...the ones used in the vid were v bottom.

Puddles do work!
Here is a short clip of my Champ this past spring with a stock motor and prop with a set of floats i built.
Haven't tried again with the floats although i did cut out a set of flat bottom ones...the ones used in the vid were v bottom.

Ridgewalker

Great footage Ridge.
Wow, your champ sounds just like a helo
Will be interesting to see if these flat bottom ones get off the water quicker. Did you ever weigh yours?

Great footage Ridge.
Wow, your champ sounds just like a helo
Will be interesting to see if these flat bottom ones get off the water quicker. Did you ever weigh yours?

It's part of the stealth system,sometimes it sounds like a motorcycle,and even a passenger jet!
If i remember right they were around 12 g- 18 g would have to do some searching though to be certain because i have forgot.

I have a bunch of white foam 2'x3'x4'' pieces,they are used in building construction for plastering stucco over.
It's pretty tough and not as fragile as say a white party cooler foam.

Had tried to use the hot wire and cut some v bottom ones out but can't figure out how to get the v perfect on each one.
So did a quick cut out of some flat bottom ones....then got sidetracked and forgot about trying them or cutting out any more.

Now it's getting colder here and the thought of me on a float to rescue the Champ doesn't go over to well... ...the water is getting cold and there are no puddles!
Would be a different story if i had a rescue boat,would be flying from the water till it froze.

They should work off the snow or ice,i plan on running the floats on the super cub this winter out on the lake when it freezes.

It's also easy to make them from milk jug plastic or thin balsa stiffened with ca.

Something you may want to consider...Some of us, me included, have found that moving the tailwheel off the rudder and onto the fuselage greatly reduces rudder damage. You lose some ground steering of course, but I havent creased my rudder since I made the change months ago.

Images

You're flying a Champ with propeller diameters of 6", 7", and even 8" ?

That's not a champ, it's a helicopter.

Did you extend the landing gear?

I have not built that Champ, I used the program to explore possibilities. It recommends those props to maximize what it views as most efficient use of the power system. I dont think the Champ would do well with an oversized prop.

That would be my guess, too. Larger props are more efficient (if they are slower turning), but they also make the plane less stable when under power if they are nose-mounted. The nicest thing about the Champ, aside from its size, is its slow and docile flying characteristics. It would lose both of those with a huge prop like your program is describing... plus landing like a gooney bird.

You guys with small UMs or newer Champs with stock everything, this is a FWIW notice:

Hobby King is selling Turnigy 138mah lipos for just 50-cents each! Shipping is cheap as well.
If you don't mind waiting a few weeks for them to arrive, they would be good little back-up lipos for when you use-up your stock lipos and aren't ready to pack it in yet.

Please don't post how you "hate Turnigy" or that "the 138mah is too small." I'm just mentioning it for those guys who don't fly WOT all the time and like a relaxing, low n' slow cruise. They might want a cheap lipo that will keep 'em flying a little while longer.

SFDS LED Llighting Kits

For those that want to extend their flight window to dusk and beyond, the Hobby Zone Champ lighting kits have been officially added to the arsenal to meet the demand. These are 1S 4 LED light kits but unlike the PZ kits, no connector. The kit must be soldered to the battery leads. $15 shipped (US only); international orders are an additional $5 shipping. Regards, LCS
________________
SF Design Solutions
"Taking the ultra micro to the dark side"www.sf-design-solutions.com

For those that want to extend their flight window to dusk and beyond, the Hobby Zone Champ lighting kits have been officially added to the arsenal to meet the demand. These are 1S 4 LED light kits but unlike the PZ kits, no connector. The kit must be soldered to the battery leads. $15 shipped (US only); international orders are an additional $5 shipping. Regards, LCS
________________
SF Design Solutions
"Taking the ultra micro to the dark side"www.sf-design-solutions.com

These lights are great. I put them on my champ. Easy-peasy as long as you can solder itsy-bitsy wires!

For those that want to extend their flight window to dusk and beyond, the Hobby Zone Champ lighting kits have been officially added to the arsenal to meet the demand. These are 1S 4 LED light kits but unlike the PZ kits, no connector. The kit must be soldered to the battery leads. $15 shipped (US only); international orders are an additional $5 shipping. Regards, LCS
________________
SF Design Solutions
"Taking the ultra micro to the dark side"www.sf-design-solutions.com

I highly recommend these, they work great and the Champ is a perfect night flyer, nice and slow Service is great too, fast shipping, excellent install instructions, awesome price!

I flew my Champ for the first time in a very long time yesterday (been a little obsessed with my Beast ) ... Man, I forgot how damn good the Champ is. It's slow, it's fast, 100% predictable at all times, will do a loop or a rudder roll with authority. Wow.

And it's the only plane I own with which I'm willing to fly so high above my flying field I almost lose orientation! It's so much fun flying a tiny yellow dot

Flew with my floats on today! Hand launched it first and I was actually impressed with how much lift and speed it still had (yes, I did a loop). It looks very cool in the air with them on. The floats do make it rock side to side so if you don't pay attention you could lose control fairly easily by correcting or overcorrecting. Take offs are very cool, it'll plow through the water pretty quickly, but once you get it on step it wants to move! Landings are fairly smooth, you just have to be slow, close to the water, and avoid plopping it in or going in too quickly. Also be sure you have enough space to turn if you need to cause the rudder is only effective with prop blast.

Yeterday I flew with the DX5E broken Antenna wire getting more and more troublesome. and abouve that spec line. I felt I did fine with spuratic lost control. came backdown from over 1000 plus feet, that I feel , was. And Man that decend was off video but onboard LOVED it.

Flew with my floats on today! Hand launched it first and I was actually impressed with how much lift and speed it still had (yes, I did a loop). It looks very cool in the air with them on. The floats do make it rock side to side so if you don't pay attention you could lose control fairly easily by correcting or overcorrecting. Take offs are very cool, it'll plow through the water pretty quickly, but once you get it on step it wants to move! Landings are fairly smooth, you just have to be slow, close to the water, and avoid plopping it in or going in too quickly. Also be sure you have enough space to turn if you need to cause the rudder is only effective with prop blast.

This was my first attempt at editing and uploading a video, several months ago. Most of it was slowed down. Wish the champ would actually fly that slow! Nothing special, just "low and slow" around the meadow. The trees were green then. Now they are bare.

I pulled the props from my UM T-28 and the Champ after a quick outing earlier today, and also grabbed the original 'factory' props (the Champ is currently using a GWS 5043) so that I can balance them all using my own crude home method, since I don't have a blade balancer.

I just took a straghtpin from a sewing kit, and let the blade hang from it. I expected this to be very insensitive and thought it would give me either spotty or even meaningless unrepeatable results. In actuality, it worked super for all the props I had, and I was absolutely flabbergasted by how far out of balance the GWS props I had were. I heard the stock Eflite props were bad and that the GWS props wee usually pretty close and only need to be checked. I found the opposite to be true -- my old Champ and T-28 props took a piece of scotch tape about an 1/8th of a postage stamp to come to balance, but both GWS props took the equivalent of about a postage stamp or perhaps a bit more in equivalent area of tape on the light blade (it was the same blade for both GWS props, too - the "GWS" stamped side) until I could not detect any difference with my crude method of gently spinning and moving and observing on the straight-pin axle.

I then used an even cruder method to try to balance the spinner -- I spun it like a top on a flat surface, then marked the down-facing surface where it came to rest. I did it ten times or so to satisfy myself it really was detecting a heavy side, and it was! I then took a tiny piece of adhesive foam and shoved it in the pocket opposite the marked 'heavy' side, and sure enough, now the side with the foam ended up downward. I took half of the pea-sized slug of foam back out, and now it ended up at random points, so I am satisfied that even if not perfect, it is at least demonstrably better than original.

I wasn't convinced this micro balance stuff was really going to be worth the effort, but seeing how much tape went on the Champ prop, I was very curious to see how it felt when I bench tested it with full throttle.

All I can say is it purrs! Not sure how much better than it was when I started, but just knowing it's now 'right' is pleasant. I did record battery consumption in some earlier flights, so it will be interesting to see if it really does pick up a bit of efficiency as measured in mah/minute consumed.

Did some Champ flying over my lunch break today. The warehouse was vacated last weekend so I did some indoor flying. It never fails that my co-workers put me up to doing silly challenges. Enjoy...

Those are some sweet LED lights you have on that thing, lol! I like where you have the landing light, vice on the nose. LCS
________________
SF Design Solutions
"Taking the ultra micro to the dark side"www.sf-design-solutions.com

Those are some sweet LED lights you have on that thing, lol! I like where you have the landing light, vice on the nose. LCS
________________
SF Design Solutions
"Taking the ultra micro to the dark side"www.sf-design-solutions.com

Haha Yes!!! Thanks. I really want to order another set from you and do a 5 led kit and have two "headlights" One on each wing

If you haven't seen them yet, visit the site and download the new Champ instructions - it might give you an idea to mount it on the nose under the prop. It really provides a lot of aspect in that locale. The 5 LED kits are a drain on the 1S batteries and would recommened against it unless using a bigger, higher C 1s LiPo. Otherwise the 5 LED kit will cause 'pre-mature' LVC and that's no fun. The wind is up tonight, not the mention the skeeters have been out with a vengenace since Irene whacked us; they are about the size of the Champ too! Otherwise I would be out flying now. Glad you are enjoying them. SF

If you haven't seen them yet, visit the site and download the new Champ instructions - it might give you an idea to mount it on the nose under the prop. It really provides a lot of aspect in that locale. The 5 LED kits are a drain on the 1S batteries and would recommened against it unless using a bigger, higher C 1s LiPo. Otherwise the 5 LED kit will cause 'pre-mature' LVC and that's no fun. The wind is up tonight, not the mention the skeeters have been out with a vengenace since Irene whacked us; they are about the size of the Champ too! Otherwise I would be out flying now. Glad you are enjoying them. SF

Ahh, good to know. I'm using a separate battery to power the lights. I got lazy and didn't feel like soldering them to the stock battery lead. I've flown for over 40 minutes with one 120mah batter powering the lights. I imagine I could go longer but never tried... I don't think the 5 LED kit would be a problem on my setup.

Had a wack day today, went out to fly my Champ and within 6 minutes into flying, my motor gave out. I was like, what the hell! My Champ has only been flown 8 times. I don't know why the motor gave out so soon... Good thing I had a new spare and installed it, but I have to get some caulking tomorrow for the new motor so I won't be flying till Saturday. Glad that I'm getting in the mail tomorrow my new UM T-28 so I'll be flying that tomorrow.

Had a wack day today, went out to fly my Champ and within 6 minutes into flying, my motor gave out. I was like, what the hell! My Champ has only been flown 8 times. I don't know why the motor gave out so soon... Good thing I had a new spare and installed it, but I have to get some caulking tomorrow for the new motor so I won't be flying till Saturday. Glad that I'm getting in the mail tomorrow my new UM T-28 so I'll be flying that tomorrow.

It was your first video I saw back in may that inspired me to get a Champ, Love my Champ but have now flown and own 6 planes from The Champ to a Beast to a 36 inch Combat wing,up to a 40 series Nitro big stick. Thanks for the inspiration and you have mad stick skills. Check out my Blog if ya get a bad weather day.